Nokia Oyj (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) Bell Labs is expected to take point in the development of platforms that will facilitate next generation 5G networks.
Nokia’s Bell Labs will lead a group of other industry players including IT firms, operators, industry vendors and institutions among others towards the cause. They will work together over a period of 2 years towards developing a platform that will help usher in the 5G era. The team-up is part of a joint partnership between the private and public sector that was launched in 2014 with a common goal of 5G development. The initiative was also part of collaborative efforts between the telecom industry and the European Union.
The focus on 5G has begun to intensify especially at a time when cloud technology has been rapidly changing the computing landscape through its mass adoption by many industries. This adoption has driven the demand for models that are beyond the current telco Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) model, thus necessitating a transition into next generation platforms for which they are better suited.
“The consortium’s ambition for developing a next generation PaaS is to enable developers to collaborate within the 5G ecosystem (operator, vendor, third party) in order to ignite new businesses; thereby increasing market scale and improving market economics,” stated Bessem Sayadi, the research manager and project head at Nokia Bell Labs.
The consortium of organizations to be led by Nokia Bell Labs is expected to focus on two major features for the 5G cloud native platform which they aim to achieve. They aim to achieve a 5G native cloud platform that will support shipping, building and running virtual network function (VNF) applications. They should be able to deliver high capacity and reliability to meet the expected performance from 5G networks.
The second key feature is to bring together various third party applications, especially those with VNF so as to create more robust cloud objects. The idea is to facilitate connectivity between sensors, humans and even robots. Nokia Bell Labs has been a major player in industry collaboration and 5G research. It is thus well suited and equipped to lead the consortium toward the cause.
Nokia stock closed the latest trading session on Wednesday at $6.36.